i saw the real size of a bala shark at the chicago Shedd aquarium, it was 15 inches and fat, i can see why they cant fit in tanks below 100 gallons....

miagrrl

05-09-2007 09:33 PM

i saw those this past weekend, I am a HUGE tiger barb fan...just not a fan of huge tiger barbs! it just didn't look right to me. I also had no idea they got that big, it made me wonder, how big of a tank would you need to see scholling behavior?

Amphitrite

05-10-2007 04:21 PM

I have always liked the striking appearance of tiger barbs, especially in a planted tank. About a year ago I decided to try adding some to my 180 planted community tank, and got a group of 9 juvenilles, thinking that in a group that size they wouldn't harass any of the other fish.

For the first few weeks as they settled in, everything was fine. But after that they started to harass my corys, taking chunks out of their dorsal fins. I eventually had to move them to another tank, and would never attempt to keep them in a community tank again.

I've heard of people keeping them with no probs, but I wouldn't attempt it again. I don't know how quickly they grow to full size, but imagine that a pretty large tank would be required to give them enough swimming space.